UKRAINE: ON THE EDGE I

CRISIS IN 

CRIMEA 

I 

EVIDENCE FOR ANALYSIS 

February 24, 2014 

First photograph of CBS News transmission; 

second and third, PBS Newshour. 

To recap the closed captioning: 

1A: This is just the beginning. 

1B: Yanukovych must die. 

2A: Reporter: Want him dead? 

2B: Yeah, because a man who do 

2C: this, those horrible things, he... 

3A: ... does not live [correction for "leave"]. 

3B: He must die for him. 

3C. It is better for him. 

To be continued; a work in progress. 

DEMONSTRATIONS IN KIEV THEN AND NOW

KIEV (KYIV) 

AT A TURNING POINT? 

"DEMONSTRATION" 

KIEV, USSR 

September 1, 1984 

A mass rally for Peace and Knowledge Day (September 1) in Soviet Ukraine:  all the participants were vetted; the leaders and speakers (on the stairs) keep their distance.  The journalists are working in the no-man's land (a kind of dry moat) between the chosen citizens and their leaders. 

An independent Ukraine emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. 

Nine years ago the Orange Revolution toppled the government. 

Two months ago demonstrators took to the street in Kiev again, after President Viktor Yanukovych chose to partner with Russia rather than the European Union. This week there have been violent clashes between protestors and the police.  Legislation severely limiting demonstrations is due to come into force tomorrow. Today the foreign minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, weighed in, protesting against the protesters. 

Reporting and analysis (and photographs and video) can be found here and here and here and here and here and here. 

Update February 18, 2014: Violence and fire and a meeting of President and Opposition, but no meeting of minds, here. 

BOHDAN KHMELNYTSKY dies August 6, 1657

BOHDAN KHMELNYTSKY

b. c. 1595; d. August 6, 1657

(August 16, New Style)

Photograph © Gwendolyn Stewart 2011

STATUE OF 

BOHDAN KHMELTNYTSKY

(BOGDAN KHMELNITSKY)

KIEV (KYIV), UKRAINE

PHOTOGRAPHED IN 1984, BACK IN THE USSR

Leader (Hetman) of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (1648-1657); organizer of a rebellion against Polish rule in Ukraine; entered into a compact with Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1654 which led to Ukraine being brought into the Russian empire.  Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev "gave" Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 in honor of  the three hundredth anniversary of this treaty. 

FRANCESCO BARTOLOMEO RASTRELLI d. April 29, 1771

FRANCESCO BARTOLOMEO 

RASTRELLI

b. Florence, 1770 -

d. St. Petersburg, April 29, 1771

ST. ANREW'S CHURCH

KIEV (KYIV), UKRAINE

Designed by

FRANCESCO BARTOLOMEO 

RASTRELLI

Photographed 1984

Back in the USSR

"HERE BE GIANTS"

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN UKRAINE II

IN HONOR OF

THE UKRAINIAN ELECTIONS II

With the second round of the Ukrainian elections today, and

all the talk about which direction Kyiv will take, here is a

photograph of two girls and bows in Kiev in 1984.

One of a series from Back in the USSR,

to be published in HERE BE GIANTS.

THE STEERAGE II: THE USSR, KIEV, & THE UKRAINIAN ELECTIONS

THE STEERAGE II:

THE USSR, KIEV,

& THE ELECTION IN UKRAINE

The presidential election in Ukraine today

(January 17, 2010), has resulted in the need

for a second round (no majority winner).

Above, a reminder of what politics looked like under the USSR. I call it "THE STEERAGE II." Here in Kiev

(Ukraine), on September 1, 1984, is a mass rally for Peace & Knowledge Day. Notice that although the participants have been vetted, the authorities keep their distance -- with a large divide between them and their "constituents," and only (Soviet) security and media allowed in an otherwise "no man's land" separating the leaders from the led. 

For me, there are echoes of "THE STEERAGE," the photograph by Alfred Stiegltiz. The photograph can be seen here, and an interesting discussion of it found here.